Skeptics Who Doubted Austerity and Reform Could Work Should Take Notice

Is Spain really on the brink of a remarkable recovery? It's a question with a significance that goes well beyond the troubled Southern European country.

For the last five years, the world has looked on anxiously as Madrid has tried to grapple with the consequences of a spectacular real-estate bust that destroyed much of its banking system and raised doubts over the very solvency of the Spanish state, while deprived of all the...